Whats in a name? Your Hebrew name! (religious, Israel)

[Ohky0815]

Do you have a Hebrew name? Do you use it often? Did you choose it or come about it another way?

I was asked at the first Synagogue we visited if i had one and I dont but i know which one id choose if i had to pick!

[Cliksder]

You will get yours once/if you convert.

I assume all of us here have a Hebrew name and I'm guessing it's mostly used for life-cycle events and getting an aliyah (in Orthodox synagogues guys only).

Then there are those who had a Hebrew name and forgot it so they were given a new one by a rabbi. True story; I know a guy who had that happen. Lol.

I'm more interested in how many of us have a double name? Like Sholom-Levi or Rivka-Malka. Doesn't seem to be that common but maybe it depends on where you live?

Edit: If your given name is say Yaakov then you could use that obviously as your Hebrew name as well.

[JB from NC]

Mine is Micah, and I chose it.
It was the prophet who I connected the strongest with.

I use it for all religious purposes: being called to Torah, blessings, my marriage contract, etc.

[Ohky0815]

Originally Posted by Cliksder

You will get yours once/if you convert.

I assume all of us here have a Hebrew name and I'm guessing it's mostly used for life-cycle events and getting an aliyah (in Orthodox synagogues guys only).

Then there are those who had a Hebrew name and forgot it so they were given a new one by a rabbi. True story; I know a guy who had that happen. Lol.

I'm more interested in how many of us have a double name? Like Sholom-Levi or Rivka-Malka. Doesn't seem to be that common but maybe it depends on where you live?

Edit: If your given name is say Yaakov then you could use that obviously as your Hebrew name as well.

LOL at forgetting it.
That is interesting about double names. Maybe they just liked both?

Originally Posted by JB from NC

Mine is Micah, and I chose it.
It was the prophet who I connected the strongest with.

I use it for all religious purposes: being called to Torah, blessings, my marriage contract, etc.

I like Micah, its something you dont hear often.
----
I have a few i point towards but Id lean to Hannah. I connect with her story of Samuel.

[Chava61]

My Hebrew name was used by my Hebrew teacher during the first 3 years of my Jewish day elementary school in the USA. Then I got used it even more when my family immigrated to Israel as a child. So even though I am now living many years back in the USA, most of my Israeli friends still call me by Hebrew name.

[Tzaphkiel]

I am Jewish by birth but was not given a Hebrew name. When I asked the Rabbi, he said I could either choose a name myself, or have the Rabbi select a name for me. I was curious what he would pick however i ended up choosing my own Hebrew name. It is two names together.

I wanted it to start with the letter samech, because I was learning the Hebrew alphabet at the time, on my own, using flash cards and a book, and writing the letters. The book said before I even learned what the letters meant or how they were used, to write them and say them and to pick our favorite letters based only on that, as those have significance to our soul. And also pay attention to what "comes to mind" as we look at each letter and draw it over and over and listen to what the letters are saying to us.

It is remarkable to me how much that approach yields. And that what I "like" about this letter or that letter is indeed very much a part of its particular identity, and mine.

Another approach which it gave that I really like and continue to use is to listen to what the letter is telling us. Picture the letter really really big, like the size of a door, and then walk into it and pay attention to what it shows me or tells me. That has become an important part of my trying to learn or understand concepts in Torah too. Listen to the teacher, read the material and footnotes over and over and over, ask questions, listen to the others in class.....and stare at the Hebrew word itself and walk into it, and listen to what the word itself is teaching me. I love this.

[theflipflop]

I dropped my slave name about a decade ago and am only known my the name connected to my neshama (Jewish soul) - my Hebrew name. I was named after a zealot. Kind of fitting sometimes.

All of my kids have 2 Hebrew names. My wife won out each time - I like strong, single names.

[theflipflop]

Interesting story... when my last child was born, my grandmother had just passed away. She was an avowed atheist and mostly a communist. No way I was going to name a child after her, as much as I did love her. When Jews name a child after a relative, the child likely takes on the traits of the deceased. But I was faced with some serious shalom bayis worries with my mother, who was expecting us to name after her atheist, communist mother.

So I did what any good Torah Jew should do in that situation. I asked my Rav a shaila (a halachic decision from a qualified orthodox rabbi). He was not fully comfortable poskining (giving the Torah's decision on what was best), so he connected me to one of the major poseks in America today - one that specializes in arranging gets (Jewish divorce decrees). He's the foremost expert on get, and by default on names.

A bit nervous, I called the posek. I told him "I want to name my son after Rabbi Akiva Eiger, is that permissible?" I was so nervous and rushed, I forget to give him the concern, that I didn't want to name after this particular relative. So with only half the facts he replied, "Nu, you called me to ask if you can name after one the greatest Torah giants of the last 300 years? Why do you waste my time?"

I explained the rest, and his psak (halachic decision) was I was free to not name after the grandmother. He encouraged me to pick a second name that did have a connection with her, and at the bris, I was permitted to praise the grandmother but to be careful not the have kavana (mindfulness) that the child was named after her. In the end, my mother was upset. But time heals all, and my kid will have this name forever. No fooling around with names.

[Ohky0815]

Originally Posted by theflipflop

Interesting story... when my last child was born, my grandmother had just passed away. She was an avowed atheist and mostly a communist. No way I was going to name a child after her, as much as I did love her. When Jews name a child after a relative, the child likely takes on the traits of the deceased. But I was faced with some serious shalom bayis worries with my mother, who was expecting us to name after her atheist, communist mother.

So I did what any good Torah Jew should do in that situation. I asked my Rav a shaila (a halachic decision from a qualified orthodox rabbi). He was not fully comfortable poskining (giving the Torah's decision on what was best), so he connected me to one of the major poseks in America today - one that specializes in arranging gets (Jewish divorce decrees). He's the foremost expert on get, and by default on names.

A bit nervous, I called the posek. I told him "I want to name my son after Rabbi Akiva Eiger, is that permissible?" I was so nervous and rushed, I forget to give him the concern, that I didn't want to name after this particular relative. So with only half the facts he replied, "Nu, you called me to ask if you can name after one the greatest Torah giants of the last 300 years? Why do you waste my time?"

I explained the rest, and his psak (halachic decision) was I was free to not name after the grandmother. He encouraged me to pick a second name that did have a connection with her, and at the bris, I was permitted to praise the grandmother but to be careful not the have kavana (mindfulness) that the child was named after her. In the end, my mother was upset. But time heals all, and my kid will have this name forever. No fooling around with names.

its good you got council on it.